Drew Joseph: Brown up for 10 debates, Whitman just one

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jerry Brown today announced that he had accepted 10 invitations for town hall meetings and debates with his opponent, Republican Meg Whitman.

The first event Brown said he would attend is on July 31 and is hosted by the Faith Forum, a Christian organization. Others, including a debate on Sept. 11 sponsored by The Chronicle, KTVU and KQED, are planned throughout September and October.

Whitman’s team so far has confirmed just one, a face-off the week of Oct. 11 between the former eBay CEO and the attorney general at Dominican University in San Rafael and sponsored by NBC.

Despite the three-and-a-half-month wait until then, the candidates are already trading blows over who is guilty of spending more of their time on the sidelines.

Is Whitman, who has been accused of dodging the public and the press (not to mention her local polling place), avoiding a public debate with Brown? Not at all, her spokeswoman, Sarah Pompei, said in a statement.

“While Jerry Brown has been on the sidelines, Meg has been busily campaigning in front of real voters for a year and a half,” Pompei’s statement read. “We are excited to review every debate option on a case by case basis and we will be weighing in accordingly.”

Pompei added: “The fact is there will be plenty of time for debates, and we are committed to having strong substantive debates, but we’re running out of time to hear what Jerry Brown plans to do about job creation, taxes, pension reform, government spending, and so many other issues.”

True, former two-term Gov. Brown has not been very forthcoming with concrete plans if he were to return to the statehouse, but a statement from his campaign said that Whitman owes it to the voters to discuss the issues in a public forum.

“There is no reason not to participate, no reason not to say what we really mean, and show the voters who we are,” Brown said in his statement. “I am calling on Meg Whitman to treat voters with the respect they deserve. It’s time to step out from behind consultant-scripted commercials full of falsehoods and distortions and debate.”